A RETROSPECT. 519 • The erection of the modern Europeanized city has been due, in the main, not to building speculation, but to the demand for new and better houses on the part not only of the European residents, but of the native landowners and capitalists. Cairo has thereby lost much of its quaint Oriental charm, but its inhabitants have gained by the acquisition of all the comforts and luxuries provided in the great cities of Europe.

It may be said that the growth of Cairo has been artificially stimulated by the presence of the British garrison. A similar reconstruction, however, has been witnessed in the provincial centres of Egypt, though on a somewhat less ambitious scale. To any one who recollects such towns as Benha, Zagazig, Assiout, and Damanhour, as they were a quarter of a century ago, their recent transformation seems even more marvellous than that of the capital. All these cities were unaffected in any direct way by the special causes which may have contributed to the rapid development of Cairo. The reasons of this process of universal reconstruction are simple enough. Security of private property, regularity of administration, protection to life and limb throughout the country, as provided under the British occupation, have not only increased the productive powers of Egypt to a marvellous extent, but have removed the dread of displaying wealth which, in former days, caused even those who had money to keep their wealth concealed.

Nowadays the natives, from the rich landowners down to the humblest fellah, are beginning -to understand